


r/WritingPrompts: Physics Test

by AsterRoc



Series: r/WritingPrompts [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Cartoon Physics, Physics, reddit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 10:44:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17262815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsterRoc/pseuds/AsterRoc
Summary: [WP] A crazy old man gives you his pen, promising that you'll ace your physics test if you use it. You take the test and wake up the next morning to find that the laws of physics have changed to fit your answers.





	r/WritingPrompts: Physics Test

**Author's Note:**

> This work was [originally posted on Reddit/WritingPrompts](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/abewg0/wp_a_crazy_old_man_gives_you_his_pen_promising/ed0czlw/?context=8&depth=9).

Today’s been the weirdest day. When I went to put my bowl of cereal on the table, for some reason it wouldn’t stay down on the table, I had to hold it there with my left hand while pouring the milk with the right. Somehow the milk stayed in the bowl, but when I went to drink it after the cereal, the texture of the milk felt off, like it was thicker than usual or something? But it didn’t taste or smell spoiled, so I don’t know what’s up with that.

I nearly got into a crash when I was driving to school too, for some reason when I went to stop at the first traffic light, my brakes didn’t seem to do anything at all, so I jammed down on the brakes real hard and it’s a good thing the brakes locked up because I immediately stopped skidding. I think I’m going to have to gas up after classes today too, which is a bummer ‘cause I swear I gassed up yesterday, and I don’t get paid until Friday.

I was so bored in economics today, I started tearing little pieces of paper outta my notebook and trying to toss ’em in the waste basket. It was pretty cool ‘cause I was making most of them in, they went straight towards the bin and then dipped down at the last moment just like Wile E. Coyote, I must’ve finally figured out how to arc them in right. But it was really weird when I picked up my bag after that, ‘cause it suddenly seemed like my bag weighed like a ton of bricks after I took out that little bit of mass of the paper bits, and it really took a lot of force to pick up my bag, and lots of energy to just carry it across the hall, I swear I must’ve burned a zillion calories on that alone.

But the best part of today is when we got our physics tests back — not only did I ace it for the first time ever, but that brainy know-it-all who sits in the front row must’ve bombed it. Oh yeah! I’m totally going to transfer to Harvard next year!

Now all I gotta do is pass that econ test tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> Some people asked which laws of physics were broken/changed. Below are what I included deliberately (though I’m only human, I could’ve messed up something else by mistake), most of which are based on errors I’ve seen my students do.
> 
>   1. Inconsistent direction for gravity (that is, g sometimes as +9.80 and sometimes as -9.80m/s2) - the bowl floats sometimes, but nothing else in the narrator’s day floats. 
>   2. Incorrect viscosity of liquid - milk. 
>   3. Coefficient of static friction too small and/or Pascal’s principle broken - brakes don’t stop the car, could be either due to too little friction, or due to hydraulics not working right (TIL: modern cars with electric braking systems still have a hydraulic part to the process, it’s just that the brake pedal doesn’t connect directly to the hydraulics, but to electronics which then connect to the hydraulics, thanks u/fluffy996 and u/RosieTheTortoise). 
>   4. Coefficient of kinetic friction greater than static friction and/or infinite - brakes locking up makes the car stop instantly. 
>   5. Something vague about fuel consumption - could be conservation of mass/energy, fluid flowing through the solid tank, the gauge not working due to Archimedes’ principle and the Cartesian diver problem, or something else. 
>   6. Projectiles don’t take parabolic paths, but Wile E Coyote paths - throwing the spitballs. 
>   7. Conservation of momentum and/or Newton’s law of Forces - picking up the bag, forces perspective is that the mass went down but it took more force to lift, momentum perspective is thinking of a small decrease in mass (dm) and the rocket ship propulsion example. 
>   8. Definition of work - carrying the bag horizontally should be 0 work since the force and displacement are perpendicular.
> 

> 
> Thanks for reading! Hope everyone aces their physics exams the legit way. 😁


End file.
